Weekly New and Digital Homework

17/10/16 - Channel 4 News defends Facebook live stream of battle for Mosul 

Facebook Live, the broadcasting live video streams aspect to the social network, was recently used in order to stream conflict taking place in Iraq by news broadcasters such as Channel 4 News as well as Al-Jazeera. Doing this has sparked reactions that fall along different places in the spectrum, with a digital editor of Channel 4 saying: 'we wanted to bring one of the most significant stories of our time to our viewers as it happened. Given the nature of conflict – we are cautious and vigilant that the material is appropriate at all times and have measures in place to stop the stream when necessary.' On the other side though, members of the public such as Aodhán Ó Súilleabháin remarked on how the emojis flashing across the screen of a warzone, was only effective in acting as entertainment for viewers.

• Watched more than 500,000 times by lunchtime on Tuesday
• Mosul feed on Al-Jazeera attracted more than 892,000 views
• Rudaw’s (Kurdish media group) audience on Facebook has increased more than 200% this week

This article to me is representative of some of the changes we are without a doubt going to see within the news industry in the next couple of years. Live streaming where people can watch things that take place across the globe as they happen, will become a lot more of a prominent thing, however with a situation like war I'm unsure on whether this was the right thing to do. Although it does act as more enlightening for the general public, is it really appropriate for emojis to be displayed in the foreground when there are casualties involved in it? While I'm sure this is something that Facebook will eventually address, it's clear that live streaming is the 'new kid on the block' when it comes to news reporting as seen in the summer with events like the Dallas and Minnesota shootings but regardless, it's here to stay.